


Glow 'verse Interlude: Touch of Death

by Indehed



Series: Night/Light Glow 'verse [6]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Gen, M/M, Possessive Steve McGarrett
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-19
Updated: 2013-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-20 17:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/889908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indehed/pseuds/Indehed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Danny continue to delve into details about the elusive Shelburne without Joe's help as he is called away, promising that someone else would be coming to help continue Danny's magic training. They are interrupted by a case that will unite Five-0 with the NCIS Special Operations based in LA. And by the end of the case, maybe someone there might be able to shed some more light on just what the hell Danny is and what his magic is for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've tagged this as NCIS: LA as well, since I am using the crossover episodes  
> This story is a continuation of my Night/Light vampire and magic Five-0 'verse and all other stories would need to be read to understand it. A few more things will be revealed and new characters are brought into the 'verse so they can be used in the final story.  
> Although it's an interlude, things will be revealed here that will be important for the final story, which means, there's one more to come and then that will be it! (finally!)  
> Thanks, as always, go to Paulette for beta reading.

Was Hesse telling the truth when he said Shelburne was alive?

They'd been wary at first about talking to Joe. If the older Guardian was keeping secrets from them, how much should they let on that they knew? But in the end, a few weeks after they were home from North Korea and fully mended, they approached him during one of their evenings at the retreat on Mount Tantalus. 

Joe, to his credit, hadn't been fully evasive, but his answer had been deeply unsatisfying for both Danny and Steve. He said he didn't tell them she was dead, and he hadn't 'let them believe' it either. He'd just simply not talked about it at all. Just been vague and mentioned her not being around, which he maintained was true. 

Shelburne was in the wind. Had gone into hiding, as some witches of her ilk did. Some witches took it upon themselves to commune with the magic, to evolve spells and abilities, to strengthen their kin with new knowledge. Others saw their path as being there to train new witches (and Guardians, practitioners and manifests) with the basics, and to teach them what was already known. Shelburne was apparently in the first group. She preferred to work in solitude and kept under the radar. No one knew where she was, but whenever she wanted to be found, she could be. 

Steve had been the first to ask what that meant for them. How would Shelburne know that things had happened, changed? That it had simply taken longer than expected for this 'project' to reach some kind of fruition. How would she know?

Joe's answer was simple - she just would. 

According to him, whether she had people who actually kept her up to date, no one knew (or no one was talking about it). But, as with other witches over the centuries, when something happened and they wanted to be a part of it, they showed up. It could only be assumed that when Shelburne was ready to be a part of this, she would be. 

Secretly, Steve and Danny had then continued their research, but focused it now on finding the elusive witch. They didn't have much to go on, but they were able to get hold of files from Jenna's belongings as well as Lori's and were pouring through them for information. It was slow going. It was lower on their list of priorities under family, work and advancing Danny's abilities now that he had been more receptive to learning. 

After what happened in North Korea, Danny considered the abilities to be useful. They could be honed to use in his job, as well as keeping the people he loved safe and if he could do that, then it was worth the sacrifice of leisure and relaxation to do it. His foremost thoughts were always on Grace, and now Steve, and keeping them from harm. 

He was determined and it showed in his training. He'd come far since they'd discovered the dependency on Steve as his 'protector'. Having him close was grounding, and having his touch was even more so, if impractical in certain situations. He had much more control over the fire element, and the air, but he was struggling still with water. 

Earth was notoriously more complicated to control, there was a lot more in the way of learned knowledge to go with it and he was sick of the reading. He liked working with fire; it suited his temperament more, and was the first thing he'd conquered on the basic level.

There were still things that bothered him. He was being trained like any other Guardian would be, and Joe had told him he would likely be led into witch training as well and yet, according to the same people that trained him, he wasn't a Guardian or a witch. So why receive the training like this?

"Because there is no training for you," Joe answered as Danny sat after a tiring regime, Steve beside him with a calming hand rubbing circles on his upper back. 

"So what you're saying is, you don't really know what I am, so you're just taking stabs in the dark with all this stuff I'm learning."

Joe gave him a glare. "It's not that. Whatever you channel your power into, the purpose you were meant for, you can't do that without basic knowledge and training in the ways of magic. We're not going to throw you in at the deep end and ask you to swim."

"So this training, this is you giving me floaties and letting me loose in the shallow end."

"Something like that," Joe answered as he sat down opposite them. "We want to believe that you, as the key, hold the possibility of saving lives. You know what the aim was when the spell was cast, that cancer could be cured, other debilitating diseases could be wiped out."

"How am I supposed to do that? I can do a nifty fireball, the telekinesis thing is coming along and I can, albeit not brilliantly, do the whole forcefield thing, but curing cancer? Come on."

Joe shrugged. "That's what Shelburne was working on."

"I don't get it," Steve said, leaning forward now, with his elbows on his knees. "Magic is all about the natural order, right? How is curing natural diseases not, well, unnatural? Plugging up a bullet wound I could see that being allowed by magic, but…" he trailed off, hoping he'd made his point. 

"Like I said," Joe answered. "It's what Shelburne was working on. It's what the Guild sanctioned for her to work on for over a century. It's a common goal of mankind and though, I believe, she struggled to commune with magic over the issue, we figured she finally made headway. Convinced it. Maybe because scientific advancements were in place already. Maybe magic is moving with the times."

"I still feel weird referring to magic like it's a person, that you can argue with it."

"Sometimes it's just easier like that," Joe said, rubbing his hands on his knees then standing. "On another topic, I have news. I'm going to be leaving you for a while. I'm needed back at Guild headquarters in D.C."

Steve stood, followed by Danny. They looked at each other, puzzled, Steve the more wary of the two. "Anything we should know about?"

"There's been progress on the Weston case. She's been spotted out East. Possibly calling on old friends to help her out."

"Well, that's good," Steve said. "Means she's not in Hawaii trying to get close to Danny, and if she's been spotted then she's getting lax. You should be able to catch her, get her behind bars. Get her some help."

"That's the aim," Joe nodded. "I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get through to her once we find her."

"So how long will you be gone?" Danny asked. 

"I'm not sure, could be a few weeks, maybe longer."

"A few weeks?" Danny looked between the two other men. "What am I doing while you're gone? I mean… shallow end here, kinda relying on lifeguards to spot me."

"It's okay," Joe placated, "I've asked to borrow someone to help. The Guild is feeling a little pushed right now, but I cashed in some favors and the Navy are going to lend a hand. They're sending someone who knows Hawaii. Could be a few days until the move is official, I believe she may still be at sea right now."

"Who is it? Do I know her? I'd like to have a file ahead of time so I can look into her credentials."

"She's a liaison to the Navy, a bit like me. She's got a good grounding in magic, a different kind of expertise and training. That's a good thing, it'll give you a more well rounded education. She might be able to help with the things you're struggling with, especially water." Joe was smiling, Danny wasn't sure he liked that. 

"That's it, that's all you're giving us?" Danny asked. 

"You'll know it's her when you meet her. Think of it as a test of your abilities. Both of you."

"You're not giving us anything? A name to go on?"

"Hmmm, nope," Joe considered. "Too easy."

*

It was late in Hawaii, but they were still up when the email came in for Steve. Or rather, they'd been up before the sun for no good reason other than to work on the Shelburne thing.

With Joe away, Danny had taken a few days to just relax and forego anything but basic magic exercises. They'd gone to bed early after dinner and it was entirely by choice as they'd rushed to the bedroom, shucking clothing as they pounded up the stairs and exhausted themselves the best way they knew how. 

Steve had woken early. It was still the middle of the night but he needed less sleep and he was expecting news from NCIS headquarters in D.C. He had been nursing a blood pack when Danny had yawned his way into the kitchen clad in a pair of loose fitting sweat pants that framed his hipbones enticingly.

"What's up, babe?" Danny asked, his voice rough as it got used to being used so early in the day.

"Just waiting on some stuff, wanted to be up for it. Come 'ere," he beckoned Danny over with an open palm and the other man responded.

Danny leaned down to give Steve a light kiss and was pulled onto Steve's lap. He laughed against Steve's lips as he perched on Steve's knee, a hand steadying himself on Steve's shoulder. He pushed himself back from Steve's lips with a grin, and then yelped as Steve's spare hand made its way under the waistband of his pants.

"Hey, hey, we did enough of that last night. What are you waiting on?" Danny's hand caught Steve's wrist and the vampire pouted, but it didn't make Danny sympathetic to him. 

"I have a friend at the NCIS field office in LA; he referred me to someone at the office in D.C. They're looking into Lori's movements for me."

"Joe already said she was spotted there, why are you asking what we already know?"

"Because I want to know where she was before then, or to see the evidence that suggests she's still there now. I just want the facts to back everything up."

"I don't think Joe would leave unless it was a good lead. You know how he's been about this whole 'key' thing. Sometimes I think he's more obsessed with me than you are."

Steve shook his head seriously, "Not possible."

"Charmer," Danny replied with ease as he patted Steve's shoulder and stood to turn the coffee pot on. Not long after it began brewing there was the telltale ding of a new email arriving in the inbox Steve had been staring at.

Danny hovered over Steve's shoulder, coffee mug warming his hands as the email was opened and a series of photographs lit up the screen. It was definitely Lori, spotted in a few pictures alone, but there were a few where she was talking with someone - someone they knew from past cases, linked to Oahu. 

"Is that…?" Danny asked first, confused as to why the man would be meeting with her.

"Adam Noshimuri."

"Didn't Victor Hesse kill his father? Why would he be meeting the last person we know to have worked with him?"

Steve shook his head, unsure. "I don't know. Maybe he thinks Lori knows something. I doubt he'd want to work with her, but you never know with the Yakuza."

"Maybe he knows something we don't."

Steve just gave Danny a look and snorted. "Yeah, right."

*

The call came in for a new case shortly after, and they dressed quickly, thankful that they'd already been awake and Danny had had enough coffee to give him a decent amount of energy and concentration. They abandoned their research and pushed their questions to the back of their heads so they could concentrate on the case.

A quarantine was already set up when they arrived, which had confused them before they found out about the smallpox their dead guy had. The CDC were already hard at work, but the Governor had asked Steve to run a parallel investigation, but do their best to keep it on the down low.

Luckily, Max had been able to get samples from the body before it was incinerated, and also got photos of the victim. They went back to HQ and began breaking down the case, wondering how a member of the military would get small pox in the first place.

"First thing we need to find out is when and where he caught this thing," Danny summed up.

"Well, I don't think he was exposed in the tradition way," Max interjected. 

"What do you mean?" Kono asked. 

"Smallpox is generally transmitted through face to face contact with a sick person. Transmission through an object of clothing is also possible but less effective. However, in Mr. Palmer's case," Max took over at the table top, scanning through different photos and pointing at one in particular. "This appears to be an injection site and that is how I believe the victim contracted the virus."

"Are you saying smallpox was used as a murder weapon?" Danny asked. 

"Yes, and depending on how long he was walking in public while contagious…"

"All the humans on the Island could be infected," Chin finished for him. 

*

"You should wait outside," Steve said, game face firmly in place as they entered the Hawaii Medical Center. 

"Except I'm not going to do that," Danny answered.

"I'm a vampire; I'm immune to the virus and I can get the information we need while you stay outside. Dammit, I should have brought Chin instead and had you liaise from the office."

"The family is in quarantine, Steven," Danny said with a sigh, glossing over his mention of Chin. He didn't like the idea of someone else partnering Steve, even if it was another member of the team who was immune to viruses because of vampirism. "I can't catch it when they're on the other side of the wall. There's plenty of safety measures in place."

Steve stopped halfway down the corridor, turning to Danny. "It's better to be safe, than sorry."

"Just quit your worrying and walk, okay?" Danny started moving, forcing Steve to continue on with him. "Remember the talk we had? No, actually, remember _all_ the talks we've had on this subject? There is a line. On one side of the line is the sensible precautions we take for each others' safety and on the other is the crazy town you sometimes visit."

"This isn't crazy town, this is… mildly-concerned-ville…" Steve made a face at his own words.

"Yeah, no. We're in a hospital. I'm more at risk of contracting the flu from being around all these other sick people than I am catching smallpox from someone in a secure quarantine. Just stand down, soldier."

"That's the army, Danny."

"Whatever, hey, look where we are…" Danny waved at the kids behind the glass, getting the family's attention. 

They spoke with Mrs. Palmer. It seemed unlikely that the family had contracted the small pox but the hospital wanted to keep them in for observation to be sure. Danny was sympathetic. She had done the right thing in keeping the door closed and the children safe inside their home, but she was still consumed by guilt because her husband died on the grass outside, pleading for help. 

They got as much as they could before the nurse arrived to take more blood, but there wasn't a lot to go on, besides the fact that the guy had a hotel room he was likely hiding out in. 

"Let's hope she's right about the dark place," Danny said.

"Why's that?"

"If he's locked up in a hotel room, he's not infecting the entire island."

"We better call the CDC," Steve reached for his phone. 

"Good idea, we can let them investigate the smallpox infested room."

"We're going, too. Well, I am, you'll be staying in the car," Steve smiled at Danny, on the move already and heading to the exit.

"Hey, where you go, I go, buddy. I am not a dog, Steven, I will not be staying in the car," He watched as Steve retreated, and then shook his head before giving in to a slight jog to try and catch up with his partner. "Today is a real hoot."

*

Steve pulled the Camaro up outside the Breakers Hotel, where Palmer had been staying. They looked at the budget hotel with trepidation. A continuing argument on the way over had resulted in a stalemate. Danny was going to go with Steve and investigate like a normal Detective would. Steve would likely still bitch and moan about keeping Danny safe, Danny would do what he thought was the right thing, and they'd go from there. 

"Is Grace still on the mainland?"

"Yeah, she's safe with Rachel, Stan and the baby. They're not due back for a couple more days." Danny watched as Steve nodded and looked around himself outside the car. The CDC truck was pulled up and agents were suited up with face masks, carrying out containers of items from the room. "I figure Chin will want to get Malia to safety if this things kicks off."

"I suspect he's already checking flight details," Steve put in. Chin had known Malia for years. She was human and in a common move in human/vampire relationships, she'd found it too intense and broken up with Chin. According to Kono, he'd been so broken up about it, it was a big part of the reason he'd left the Force, despite telling Steve and Danny when they'd met that it was simply time to move on. Kono had been convinced it was a way of trying to calm his life down and win Malia back. Yet it was having Chin back doing the job he loved again, and seeing Chin happy, that a chance meeting between the two at a hospital visit had brought them back together. Old feelings had never gone away and the two had tied the knot recently. Steve had made eyes at Danny throughout the ceremony and the reception after. Danny refused to pay attention to them, which made Steve act like more of a fool and drop more hints that one day it could be them.

Danny cleared his head and his throat, and pointed at one of the passing men. "We should see if they've got some extra masks we can borrow."

Steve shook his head. "I don't need one."

"I do."

"Not in the car, you don't."

"Shut up, Steve, I'm going with you. And, not all of us are undead, so I gotta go grab one first." Danny reached for the door handle.

"Undead? Danny, I'm not a zombie."

"You got a better term for it?" Danny asked, sitting back again to turn and look at Steve.

"Yeah. 'Vampire'. I'm a vampire, Danny."

"What's your point?" Danny asked, squinting at Steve.

"I'm not reanimated, I'm alive. I died as a human and was reborn a vampire. Undead things, like zombies, are still dead."

Danny rubbed his fingers together and took a breath. "Okay, uh… I'm going to gloss over the fact that you gave me a death lesson in which you compared the differences in vampires and zombies. Especially considering zombies aren't real, outside of comic books."

Danny's hand once more found the door latch and he pushed it open, unfolding himself from the car and taking a deep breath, he quickly made his way over to the CDC van. Commandeering a face mask, he tested out the elasticity of the band as he caught up to where Steve was.

"Hurry up and put that thing on," Steve gestured to it as they walked past the pool.

"Pretty sure if the smallpox was out here, we'd have a lot more cases by now, but thank you, Mr. Mildly Concerned."

Steve shook his head at Danny, but the smaller man ignored it. He didn't truly mind Steve's concern. He knew it if wasn't there, Steve wouldn't be Steve, and that would be even more worrying. 

As they approached the last few steps to the room, Danny hooked the mask over his face and both of them donned their gloves. For a dark place, it wasn't very dark. It was a standard hotel room, with windows that looked out over the pool and to the Hawaiian bright blue sky. It had a bed, a TV, a fridge. There was no mess, but the CDC might have cleared that already for testing. Looking around the place, it didn't seem like the den of despair the man's wife had made it out to be. There was nothing around that signified a man in trouble, and with the 12 steps taped up on the mirror, it made it seem like he was really trying to get back to how he once was.

Danny opened the fridge and dug around. And okay, it's much more suspicious, when you find a box with syringes and vials in them.

Knowing there was nothing more to find, they headed back to the office. Danny checked in with Chin who, as suspected, had a constant stream of airline information in the top corner of their table top computer. He patted the vampire on the back, the reason being clear to both of them over why he was looking at them and he headed to Steve's office. 

He closed the door behind him. Seeing Chin react in the same way, or at least, in a similar way to Steve, always made him dial down his frustration with Steve's vampire side. It always reminded him that it was a part of who Steve and Chin were and it was what he'd signed up for in his relationship with Steve, long before they knew about whatever cosmic forces said they belonged together, and how it was Steve's God given right to protect Danny.

He sat on the couch along the side of Steve's wall and stretched an arm across the back of it. "I think Chin will have a fight on his hands if he tells Malia she's to go to the mainland. She's a Doctor, you know she'll want to stay here and help."

"And Chin won't let her, and he'll make her get on one, even if it's a private jet," Steve leveled. "I know what you're getting at, Danny. You think I'm coming down too hard again."

"Yeah, I do. But I know why you're doing it. Just like I know why Chin is doing it. But Malia and I, we have jobs to do, obligations. Careers we chose for a reason. We can't walk away from people who need our help. It's just not in us to do so."

Steve gave a tentative smile. "It's one of the things I love about you." He lifted himself from his chair and circled his desk so he could come closer to Danny. He sat beside him with a huff, leaned in closer and wrapped himself around Danny. His head in Danny's neck, his teeth nipped lightly against his favorite patch of skin, but he made no move to deepen anything. 

"How do you do that?" Danny sighed.

"What?"

"Act like an ass and then just hug me and I forgive you."

"It's a gift."

Danny frowned as he turned his head down to Steve's. "I think Gracie's been teaching you her moves."

Steve shifted guiltily. "That's classified."

*

An update on the syringes meant they turned out to be anti-depressants. But things just got confusing after that, considering the drugs weren't actually in Palmer's system when he died, so the puncture marks could still be how he was infected with smallpox. It all led to them needing to chase down Ken Tanner - the man who recruited Palmer for drug trials - while Chin and Kono went after the dead man's cell phone which was still turned on, wherever the hell it was. 

They knocked on the door of Tanner's house and got no answer. Steve kept glancing down at Danny. "Would you quit that?" He reached out and knocked Danny's arm away from where he was scratching himself. "Bites don't heal properly if you scratch at them."

"How do you know it's a bite and not smallpox-y?" Danny held his arm up so he could inspect it. 

"Because if it was smallpox, I'd have freaked out about the smell by now and you'd be at the hospital."

"You'd be able to smell it?" Danny asked. "Of course you would, with your freaky vampire nose."

"It's a mosquito bite, Danny. Stop being such a hypochondriac. Speaking of smell..." 

As Steve trailed off, Danny gave him a wide eyed look, waiting for him to continue but then nothing happened. Instead, he heard something. "Do you hear that? Sounds like a car."

Both of them moved over to the garage. At the side window, Danny looked in to see a car, what looked like dusty smoke, and a man sitting in the drivers' seat.

"He's in there, get it open," he ordered Steve, who then rushed to the front and hiked the door up as quick as he could. They made their way in and grabbed the man, dragging him outside. But the body was already cold and he was definitely dead. It seemed like it must be carbon monoxide poisoning, which gave the impression of a suicide.

"Now we know why he didn't show up for work." Steve said. "Guilty conscience maybe, for Palmer's death."

Danny headed back in to turn off the car, a glove in his hand to grab the keys with. That was when he noticed the head rest on the seat. "Hey, Steve, come see this."

When Steve approached he knew instantly what it was. A vampire could always tell. "Blood," he nodded. "Maybe this wasn't a suicide."

*

For some reason the team had gravitated to Danny's office. Chin had met Kono on her return from finding the cell phone and getting an update on what Fong was working on. Steve had already joined Danny once they found out from Max that the cause of death on Tanner was blunt force trauma to the head.

Danny took it upon himself to brief the cousins once they joined him. "Crime scene techs pulled a print off the keys we found in the ignition and the guy's in the system. His name is Dracule Comescu."

"Who the hell is that?" Chin asked. 

"He's not a vampire," Danny shot Steve a look. They'd been joking about it before Chin and Kono had arrived back. "I thought the very same thing but he's a Romanian national who is on the NCIS watch list, very specifically the office of Special Projects in Los Angeles."

"What's he doing here?" Kono injected.

"I don't know, Steve's about to phone, apparently one of his old buddies from the SEALs is a part of the team. I know, who knew, small world." Danny smiled at Chin and Kono as Steve sat, already hitting the last button to dial his friend.

Once the phone was ringing he put it on speaker for the rest of the room to hear. 

"Yeah?" The voice asked, not even giving a name. Danny rolled his eyes. Lack of phone manners must be a SEAL thing then.

"Hey Sam, long time," Steve smiled.

"McGarrett? I figured you were too busy surfing to catch up with old friends."

"If only that were the case, Sam. I'm calling about a suspect we're tracking who's on your watch list. Dracule Comescu."

"This is Special Agent Callen, who am I talking to?"

"Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, I head the Governor's special task force in Hawaii."

"Okay, Commander, are you telling me Comescu's in Hawaii?"

"We found his prints at a murder scene. You know him?"

"Yeah, very well… very personally," the agitated voice came back. Steve and Danny shared one of their looks, both recognizing that there was something serious going on that could impact the case.

Hanna took back over. "Comescu is part of a Romanian organized crime family and let's just say we ended the family business not too long ago."

"Well, whatever it is he's doing now, he may have got his hands on a smallpox virus," Steve continued.

"That's why the Hawaii National Guard has upped the WMD civil support team. Air Force is sending a bird tonight," Hanna continued. 

"You able to hitch a ride?" Steve asked. 

"We're on our way."

*

There was very little else they could do for the day. Though it was clearly worrying both Chin and Steve that there was a pressing need to get their other halves to safety, they had to rein it in as much as possible. 

Danny had placated Steve as much as he could. Steve had actually eaten dinner with him: real food and not just the blood bag he'd poured in a glass to drink with it. But he'd been restless, his knee bouncing while they then sat on the couch together watching television, marveling at how the local news knew nothing of it. That was a good thing though, because the last thing they needed was a mass panic on their hands. 

Danny's hand shot out to stop Steve from bouncing his knee again. "You have far too much pent up energy."

"Agreed," Steve responded.

Danny stood and moved to stand between Steve's legs; blocking his view of the TV and making him look up at Danny. 

"How about we do something to take your mind off things."

Danny had been serious, but Steve's lips curled up and he grabbed Danny's hand, pulling the shorter man down and on top of him. "I think I can get behind that idea."

"Neanderthal. I didn't mean drag me back to your cave, I was thinking we could go do some exercises. I haven't done any today."

Steve's face dropped into a pout, but then a wicked smirk came over him. "I can think of some great exercises. I'm sure I can make them nice and aerobic."

With a shake of his head, Danny reached a hand out and clutched Steve's jaw to stop him from moving his head in as he tried to kiss Danny's lips. "You're disgusting, did you know that?"

"I can be," Steve attempted to say, but Danny's hold was too tight. "I can be anything you want."

Danny let go quickly and threw both his hands over Steve's shoulder and ground up closer to him. "God, I love it when you're disgusting. Change of plans, then." Steve started licking and sucking Danny's neck. He knew Steve wouldn't bite him, he never would in the middle of a case; too worried about blood loss making Danny tired, and the venom making him too blissed out to get his mind back on track. "Bedroom. Bedroom, now. And bring the beers and you can be as disgusting as you want."

 

*

"So am I to assume that all Navy SEALs know each other?" Danny asked as they drove to the airbase to pick up the NCIS agents early the next morning.

"You can assume that if you'd like but I doubt it's true. I do, however, know a lot of SEALs because I'm old and have been in the Navy a long time, on and off. Sam and I have worked together in the past. Never part of the same unit, but on joint operations. He dropped off the grid for a while, I'm pretty sure he did something with the CIA before he wound up with NCIS."

Danny nodded along as Steve spoke. "Sounds like a lot. He a vampire too?"

"No, last I checked he was all human."

"Good to know," Danny said as they pulled up in time to see the Air Force jet lowering its ramp. They got out to meet the new arrivals and Steve smiled as he saw Sam, but it turned to a frown when he took in the person he was with.

"What is it?" Danny asked, sensing the tension in Steve. 

"Nothing," he answered and walked ahead to meet them. 

Steve clapped Hanna's back as they half hugged. Danny held his hand out. "Detective Danny Williams, Steve's partner, nice to meet you."

"Callen," the other said, looking around, seeming to also tense when he met Steve's eyes. 

"Sam Hanna," the other agent said, congenially enough, clearly ignoring his own partner's agitation. 

Danny looked between them. "Okay, so there's something going on here. Steven?"

Steve kept his eyes steady on Callen for a moment. "Vampire," he inclined his head at Callen. 

"Really? Okay, well he's here to help, he's not going to encroach on your space, you need to relax. Focus on me rather than him, that's helped before."

"It's not that simple," Steve said. "It took me a while to get used to working with Chin and I already knew him for years."

"Yeah, I know, buddy, but time is of the essence." Danny turned back to Callen. "Sorry about him. But I'm going to have to ask you to also keep the teeth away and be nice so we can all work together."

"I'm not a vampire," Callen said. Eyes narrowed, gauging the response. "Not entirely, you don't need to worry about me."

"What does that mean? Not entirely?" Danny asked. 

"He's a half-blood," Sam answered for him. "The son of a vampire and a human. He doesn't drink blood, or have any super heightened senses, but he's a tough nut to kill."

"Interesting, I thought half-bloods weren't real, like zombies."

"They're real, Danny," Steve spoke up.

Danny turned back to his partner. "Half-bloods or zombies?"

Steve just looked at Danny and ignored the question. 

"You finally going to take me for that steak dinner you owe me?" Hanna asked, relieving the tension. 

"You owe him dinner?" Danny asked, turning to Steve and then back to Sam to focus on the Agent who seemed much friendlier. "What, did you have to pay last time 'cause he forgot his wallet?"

"He still using that move?" Sam asked with a laugh. 

"It's his move," Danny replied, shrugging. "I've taken to stealing money out of his wallet and adding it to mine so he thinks I'm paying when really it's him all along. Works like a charm."

"I notice, Danny," Steve said, never turning his back on Callen as he turned to the other two. "You basically carry everything for both of us, I don't need a wallet."

"Nice," Sam patted Danny's back as they got moving. Steve was still wary of Callen, who also looked to be on edge, but with Sam and Danny between them they should be able to play nice. 

"How bad is it?" Callen asked, getting them back on topic.

"Good news is there's been no new cases of smallpox, bad news is, CDC aren't having any luck on a back trace of our victim. The guy went missing about a week ago and we've no idea where he was," Danny filled them in.

"Which means we don't know who else he infected," Callen finished. 

They continued talking on their way back over to the car. Hanna and Callen updating Steve and Danny on Comescu and how he might fit into the story here. 

"What about you?" Danny asked of Callen. "I hear you have a personal beef with him?"

"Comescu tried to kill my entire family."

"Say again?"

"Blood feud," Callen said, with no hint of anything being out of the ordinary. 

Danny glanced at Steve and then realized it wasn't an uncommon thing after all, when he thought about it. "Ah. Well uh, that happens."

*

Callen and Hanna were introduced to Chin and Kono. Chin was wary of Callen as soon as he clapped eyes on him; much like Steve had been and still was to an extent. Everything was explained again and though surprised to meet a half-blood, Chin was able to calm himself down quicker than Steve had. But then, Steve had always been more territorial. Perhaps the crazy came with age, or maybe Chin's Zen exterior hid his discomfort better, but Danny hoped they could all get along enough to solve this problem. 

It turned out there were other missing men from the drug trials. They all worked to try and put together the pieces of the puzzle. Assuming Palmer wasn't meant to escape, it was possible the others in this experiment were still alive. And if Palmer's escape was unexpected, Comescu had made a mistake and it could be the key to finding him and taking him down. 

"I think I can help with that," Chin said, coming back from where he'd taken a phone call in his office. 

He'd run Tanner's financials and they had shown a hefty payment that he'd then used to buy medical supplies and have them shipped to a warehouse on Sand Island. 

"You know what they used to call Sand Island," Kono said. 

"What's that?" Hanna asked. 

"Quarantine Island."

*

"Shotgun," Hanna said as they made their way out to the cars in full tac gear.

"Of course you ride shotgun, we both will. We don't know these roads, we don't know where we're going," Callen smiled back at his friend. 

"I meant the Camaro," Hanna continued before being interrupted by Steve.

"Woah, I ride with Danny, that's just how it is. You can follow us in the other car," Steve said.

"Excuse us for one moment, thanks," Danny said, grabbing Steve by the elbow and pulling him off to the side. "We do not have time for this; it's the middle of a case. Agent Callen has a point, and if this goes south, we need experience at the wheels and that's you and me, buddy."

"Fine," Steve agreed reluctantly with full aneurism face on display. "But the rules apply here. I'm not going to be with you, so no magic." Steve sighed and looked about him. "You take Sam, he's a SEAL, I trust him. I'll keep an eye on Callen."

"Whatever, fine. I wasn't going to use magic anyway." Danny ignored Steve's rather obvious attempt to make sure Danny was 'taken care of'. His territorial issues were being a pain, but they didn't have time right now. Instead he turned, forced a grin onto his face and walked back to his car. "Agent Hanna, you're with me."

As Danny headed for the Camaro he caught Hanna giving his partner a smug look so similar to Steve's he had to wonder if the SEALs cultivated that kind of 'pleased with myself' look. Sam made himself comfortable in the Camaro and slapped his knees as Danny turned the ignition. 

*

At the warehouse it didn't take long for things to, indeed, head down the proverbial toilet very quickly. The place had surveillance and so Comescu saw them coming. It immediately turned into a car chase along the dusty roads of the Island. 

"We'll go around and cut them off," Steve said in his comms unit, while Danny continued the chase from behind. 

Comescu's car headed up a ramp by a warehouse and Danny kept the Camaro parallel to it on ground level. 

"Get in front of him," Hanna yelled. 

"Trying to," Danny answered as he put his foot down. 

"Hold it steady," Hanna ordered as he let off four shots and none of them made impact. 

"'Hold it steady', you shoot like Ray Charles, come on," Danny moaned. 

"Watch out for the dumpster!" Hanna pointed. 

"I see the dumpster, thank you," Danny raised his voice as he swerved around it, the Camaro falling back in the chase as he had to compensate. 

"You might want to work on your driving position a little, your wrists are in the wrong place," Hanna critiqued. 

"My wrists are in the wrong place? What is it with Navy SEALs and backseat driving?"

"Watch out for the car!"

"I see the car!"

Danny's frustrations built as he ground the Camaro to a halt before it smashed into the one parked, or more likely abandoned, in front. He felt like he was beginning to work out which of Steve's annoying habits had been picked up in the SEALs and which were vampiric. 

"You might want to turn around," Sam said, giving Danny very little time to take a breath let alone change gear.

"You think so, Doctor?"

"I do think so."

Danny glowered at Hanna, turned his head back to the road and threw the car into reverse. The wheels spun as he pressed the accelerator and the car shot backwards.

"I ask him to turn around and he goes in reverse," Hanna groaned out loud. 

Danny ignored the comments as he threw the car into a spin and pushed the gear stick back into drive. "Steve, I got jammed up, do you see him?"

"No, we don't," Steve answered. 

"There he is," Callen said, and Danny heard it over the comms as he floored it to catch up. He could also tell, whether by the sound of the screeching from over the comms or he just knew Steve too well, that the vampire was throwing the car around like a rag doll in order to follow Comescu before he could get onto the main island. 

"Danny, cut him off, cut him off!" Steve shouted. 

"We got him," Danny said, as he braked hard. 

Comescu's car had no choice but to lose the game of chicken and the car careened off the road and flipped while the men in the other two cars watched on. 

Weapons unholstered, the four-man team came to find their suspect, only to see the driver alone left in the car - Comescu having jumped ship at some point. Probably back at the warehouse.

They all got back in the cars and went to the warehouse again to see what had been going on. Steve and Sam took point as they entered, but there wasn't much to keep them safe from as the building was empty of people by the looks and was set up to look like a quarantine station. 

Callen donned gloves and without any thought, moved through the flimsy hanging barrier and into the room. Half-bloods were probably immune to viruses too.

"Stay here, Danny," Steve said as he followed Sam to the flaps. Danny ignored him and began moving forward but this time, Steve wasn't letting him argue over it. "I mean it, Danny. Stay outside." 

Danny could tell in Steve's face that this time there was no argument to be had. He lifted his hands placatingly and stood his ground. Sam shot him a curious look but seemed to let it slide as Danny kicked his toe against the concrete, his head bowing in deference to Steve's decision. 

"Shouldn't we call somebody?" He asked, and no one responded. To Danny, it seemed that they were too engrossed in what they'd found. "What is it? Anyone?"

"The other three. Dead." Sam answered. 

"It wasn't smallpox," Callen spoke. "Comescu executed them."

*

The CDC were brought out along with Max, and the others watched while everything was examined. Steve prowled around, sniffing the air, trying to find anything that the techs might miss, all the while keeping one eye on Danny to make sure he stayed back. The first time Danny had tried to get closer to the transparent tent to see in, Steve had given him The Face and a shooing gesture to back off. 

Sam leaned in and asked, "So what's with the 'stay here', puppy training routine."

Danny smirked at Sam's analogy. "Puppy, that's nice." He folded his arms, keeping one up to scratch his cheek before he decided how to explain, and how much to explain. Frankly, it was none of their business and had nothing to do with the case. Not to mention its complexity and they had very little time to spare. "He uh, it's a vampire protectiveness thing."

"That all?" Sam asked, his voice sounding a little incredulous. "Because I have never seen McGarrett show that side of himself so fiercely and you act like he does it all the time."

Danny gestured over to where Steve was and back at himself. He was speechless and didn't have a clue how to respond. His mouth opened but nothing came to him quickly enough. 

"They're mated," Callen answered, nonchalantly.

"I'm sorry, what?" Danny leaned forward to peer around Hanna to the other man. 

"You and McGarrett, you're a mated pair. I can tell these things, it's a half-vampire thing. Plus the…" he gestured to the side of his neck.

Danny's eyes glanced over to the other side of the quarantine tent where he could just make out Steve standing and could see the small smirk on the vampire's face and knew he was listening in from afar. He put his hand up to his neck and pulled at the collar of his shirt. The marks there were pretty permanent considering how often Steve drank from him, so he knew exactly what Callen had seen.

"It's not, I mean, 'mated'? That's not how I'd put it," he frowned at his own words. Technically 'mated' made sense since they frequently got down and dirty with each other and it was a large factor in their relationship. Neither of them had any desire to be with anyone else in that or any other way, so you could say, from a basic standpoint, that they were 'mated'. But there was much more to it. Again, he could try and explain but he barely understood it himself and, again, they had very little time for this kind of thing. 

"Then how would you put it?" Callen asked, a smile playing on the edges of his lips as he watched Danny fluster. 

"Complicated. I'd say it's complicated." Danny nodded with a sigh, realizing that explained nothing. 

"Smooth dog," Sam murmured. Danny's head shot up at the use of Steve's nickname, and caught Hanna hiding a laugh behind his hands. 

"I'm pretty sure we've got more important things to talk about than the sex life of a vampire Navy SEAL. Max looks like he's about done."

Everyone looked up as the man in question began taking off his gear. Steve saw the same thing (or heard Danny, either was possible) and made his way back over and winked at Danny. Sam caught the movement and held his hand out to shake Steve's. "Told you it would happen one day," he said.

"I'm glad I never took that bet," Steve answered him, smacking his hand into Sam's and then turning so he was beside Danny and put an arm on his nearest shoulder. "Danny's special, though."

"He'd have to be to peak your interest," Sam laughed. 

"Max!" Danny greeted, clapping his hands together to draw attention away from Steve's comments. "Thank god. What did you find?"

"Well, we did find smallpox virus samples but not all of them. Apparently several vials are missing."

"There was nothing in the vehicle," Steve rocked on his feet as he spoke. "He must have taken them with him."

"This is a very sophisticated set up," Max said. 

"I highly doubt a Romanian thug could do this by himself," Danny put in. 

"I concur," Max agreed. "Someone with very specialized scientific knowledge was involved."

"Okay then, what about the video cameras, did they pick anything up?" Steve asked.

"The CDC found footage. Evidently the suspect used it to document the progression of the disease."

"Okay, Kono can go over the footage, Max," Steve pointed at the M.E. "Should Danny, and Sam…" he added the other SEAL as an afterthought. "Should they be wearing masks right now?"

"Technically, yes." Max answered. 

"Okay, out, go." Steve ordered. He pushed at Danny and let the others follow on, sauntering behind while Danny put up with Steve's more forceful strides.

*

While Callen and Hanna went to check with the TSA about flights to see if they could track potential buyers, Steve and Danny headed back to the hospital to have a word with the driver. 

"How do you want to play this thing?" Danny asked as they wandered back in around corridors they were becoming familiar with. 

"The usual," Steve answered with a nod. 

"So we're doing our thing then?" Steve frowned down as Danny talked. "You'll do the crazy thing and I'll try and stop you and then the perp will talk, right? The thing where the worry is actually genuine from my side, correct?"

"That's the thing, yes."

It went to plan, of course, if Steve had a real plan in his goofy head. He took a syringe and vial in with him and told the driver he had no idea what it was. Danny tried to warn the perp that Steve was crazy and would do what he said he would and tried to get him to see reason before it was too late. As the orange liquid got closer to his arm he slowly gave up more information until they couldn't get more from him. Steve revealed it was vitamin B12. Danny wiped a hand over his face and told him he was insane and they walked out of the room.

"Would you stop whining about it all the time?" Steve asked of Danny as they left the hospital.

"Whining? Whining again? I'm just trying to do my job. Properly."

"It worked, didn't it? Once again, my plan worked."

"Mine would have worked if, for once, you gave me some time. You have no patience. Which is something I just don't understand considering how you're all immortal and everything."

"I am a very patient person, Danny. You know that perfectly well. I just don't think we have the time to waste when there's a potential smallpox outbreak about to happen. I may be immune, but you aren't."

"No, I'm not. Nor is any other human on this rock, either. You do remember about them, right?"

"Of course," Steve didn't meet Danny's eyes. Instead he made his way to the driver's side of the car as usual. After a moment of silence, he gestured for Danny to hurry up. With a shake of his head and a 'why me' glance to the heavens, Danny climbed in.

*

Sam and Callen had information on the buyers that they got from TSA security footage. Five-0 knew what Comescu looked like from pictures NCIS already provided, but the TSA would be sending over information on their Chechen buyers as soon as possible. There would be plenty of faces to check to keep them occupied in the meantime.

The International market place wasn't the greatest of logistical settings. The stalls were varying heights and widths, crammed together in some places and more spacious in others. There were banners blocking views, and innocent bystanders to hide with, and that was going to make spotting their targets more difficult. 

Danny and Sam were teamed up again and put on the high ground above the Tree House Cafe to keep a better watch, with Steve stuck with Callen on the low level, ready for a foot chase if that were to happen. Steve had already spoken to Danny quietly about it. It was clear with Callen's history with Comescu that it would be wise to keep an eye on him, in case things escalated. Not to mention, Steve was getting a 'vibe' from Callen over it. Danny was convinced it was simply to do with his family history with the guy and was understandable, as Steve had been the same whenever Victor Hesse was involved. Steve agreed, but felt safer if he was with Callen, and Danny stuck with his Navy SEAL buddy. Oh and, there was another small reminder from Steve that Danny was to lay off the magic.

Danny didn't mind being paired as they were. Sam had a lot in common with Steve, so he knew how to handle the guy plus he had faith in Sam's abilities. It was refreshing to work with a human again, but he realized as he stood on top of the balcony, that he'd become accustomed to Steve's hovering, and to him picking up on scents or sounds much quicker than Danny could hope to. Working with a human felt somehow restrictive. He really had been taking his partnership with Steve for granted. 

Danny really didn't buy the fact that this was the place to set off the smallpox. Not if Comescu was the mustache twirling villain he'd been led to believe he was. An airport made sense, or a bus station, for distribution purposes.

The marketplace was crowded but small. He pointed out as much to Sam, knowing Callen, Steve, Kono (stationed on a room balcony of a nearby hotel with a sniper rifle) and Chin (who was keeping a perimeter with HPD and the CDC) were on the other end of the comm units. 

Sam had no answer for him; instead he screwed up his face and looked back at Danny. "Why do you dress like that? We're in Hawaii."

Danny peered down at himself. "It's my style." He cleared his throat. "McGarrett put you up to this or something? What is with the obsession about how I dress?"

He could hear Steve stifle a laugh through his ear piece. "I didn't say a word, Danno. I told you people would notice and they always do. I'm just thankful I got you out of ties."

Sam rubbed a hand over his face to control himself from laughing. "You wore a tie in Hawaii?"

"Eventually we're hoping to get him in an Aloha shirt," Chin laughed.

"Well _that's_ never going to happen," Danny threw his hands up in resignation, not bothering to explain professionalism to anyone ever again on this rock and was thankful that Sam turned his attention to his own partner, asking what it was looking like down on the ground. 

"No sign of Dracule yet," Callen answered, all business. "I should have been the one to question that driver." The man sounded upset, frustrated. Danny had only known him a short time but he could tell this was important to him. He expected Steve to understand the whole 'blood feud' thing considering his own family history. Perhaps, in the end, that was why Steve had been twitchy around Callen, and not just because he was a half-blood.

"Bad idea," Steve answered confidently. "Besides, he gave up everything he knew. We wouldn't get anything else."

Photos arrived and each of them checked their phones to get a good look at who they were after. Chin spotted them parking and walking in and was able to give a brief description. Kono was then in the best position to scout the area to know where inside the market they were heading. She directed that Danny and Sam were closest and once Danny spotted the black suits, he and Sam were making their way hastily down the stairs so as not to lose them. 

At the same time, Callen and Steve began following Comescu, but there was no sign of him carrying anything. Danny and Sam had to assume the buy may have already happened and the bag with the Chechens may have the vials.

"We need to take 'em now, let's go," Danny said, a hand automatically checking for the service weapon he had hidden in the back of his pants.

With a quick distraction, Sam grabbed hold of the first guy, getting his arms behind him and comfortably holding them in place with what was clearly some impressive upper body strength. As his friend was caught, the other immediately put his hands up in front of Danny and gave him a strange look. But then it became clearer that the man could see how powerful Danny's magic was, because Danny could detect only a low level glow from this guy. He was intimidated by Danny's power. Sometimes it was useful to be… whatever he was.

Danny led him to a nearby bench and cuffed him to the arm of it. Sam dropped the other buyer beside him and cuffed them both together, keeping his own weapon trained on them while Danny opened the bag. They made no move to try anything and though it would be stupid to do so with a gun trained on them, even Sam seemed to tense, like he thought he was missing a piece of information. 

Danny touched his ear piece. "The Chechens are in custody."

"The buy hasn't happened yet, the money's still in the bag, the buy hasn't happened yet. Repeat, the buy is still in play." Sam continued for him. 

Danny zipped the bag back up as he listened intently to what was going on. He knew Steve and Callen had Comescu in their sights, and he knew that both of them would be more determined now to get their hands on him since the vials were still missing. 

"There," he heard Callen say quietly. "They're getting spooked, we need to move on this."

Danny hated not being closer to the action, almost sitting back and letting Steve do something that might be crazy. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that, with so much personally riding on this as well, it was easily possible that Callen would also be pretty crazy. And two crazy people did not equal one sane one. 

Gunshots could be heard, both over the comms and in echo around the area as Danny heard what sounded like Callen shouting at Comescu to stop. "Steve, what's going on? Steve!"

"Comescu's running," Steve said, sounding harried. 

Danny and Sam abandoned their chained captives, shouting for Chin to come in with HPD to arrest them, and took off in the direction of the shots; the same direction people were fleeing from. 

"Danny, give me eyes, but stay back. I don't want you near those vials."

"Shut up, Steven," Danny said in response as he got closer with Sam. If the situation weren't so immediate he was sure Sam would have had a 'what about me?' retort, and he was half expecting it, but everyone was too busy for any banter.

"The area is unstable now, this isn't an easy take down."

"Don't make me repeat myself, Steve," Danny spoke through his teeth.

"I'm your protector, Danny, do as I say!"

"Goddammit," Danny cursed, feeling Sam's eyes on him, but he was the one to relent and shut up, partially not wanting to clog the comm and also, not really willing to go into personal details. 

The market place was clearly larger than Danny realized. It was taking him longer to get closer to Steve than he wanted, and it didn't help that there were panicked tourists at every turn and he was wielding a gun himself. 

Kono was able to spot that Comescu and his bodyguard had split up, and as Danny heard Steve shout 'freeze' over the ear piece, he knew that in the melee it wasn't Comescu that Steve was after but the bodyguard. Callen had spoken quickly, but from what Danny could gather he'd left Steve in order to go after Comescu himself. As the bodyguard took a hostage, Steve had no choice but to lower his weapon. Just as he was beginning to worry, not least because he could only hear and not see the action, a shot rang out as Kono took down the bodyguard as he lowered his own defenses.

"Thanks, Kono," Steve breathed with relief over the earwig. 

It was unclear where Callen had disappeared to in his foot chase, but they heard enough to know that he'd caught up to Comescu and was in a stand-off. Shortly after, as they worked out where he was, they heard the gunshots. Sam, worried about his partner, was checking down side areas and scanning where he could, determined to get to Callen, which made Steve and Danny feel like they were tagging along. Steve gestured in a different direction and spotting the move, Sam made his way down another vennel, trusting Steve's instincts and senses to help lead him to Callen.

"You alright?" Sam asked as they made it to the clearing by the small waterfall. 

"We just recovered every missing vial of smallpox, so yeah, I'm good," Callen answered, out of breath. 

Sam still kept his weapon trained on Comescu, despite the blood soaked shirt the dead man was wearing. 

"I wasn't talking about smallpox," Sam said, closer to his partner. 

"I know," was the response. In that moment Danny knew that those two were incredibly close. Maybe not on Steve and Danny's level, and not in a sexual way, but they were partners in just as true a sense. They cared deeply for the other and had a strong brothers-in-arms mentality. Sam was looking out for Callen at what might be the end of his struggle and that was good to see. He hated to intrude on the moment and settled for checking the area around them while Steve looked on with contemplative eyes. 

Chin came sauntering in a few moments later, most likely able to pinpoint Steve easily with his own freaky vampire nose and he quietly informed Steve the Chechens were being taken care of. 

As Sam relieved the dead Comescu of his weapon and Callen sat to catch his breath and digest the day's events, Steve patted Chin on the shoulder and turned to Danny. 

"What did I say?"

"I'm sorry?" Danny asked, straining his neck closer, going for as nonchalant as possible.

Chin wisely stayed out of it, concentrating instead on his phone which now seemed to be fascinating him. 

"How am I supposed to protect you if you don't listen to me? We could have run right on in here to find the poison had been released!" Steve had full blown aneurism face. Combined with the come-down of a foot chase and arrests, it was a pretty lethal combination. 

"Poison?" Danny asked. "Is this about the Saran thing again? I'm fine, we're all fine and Agent Callen got the smallpox. Comescu is dead. This is a win for the good guys. Just let it go."

"Huh, 'let it go', he says," Steve snorted. "One of these days I'm not going to be able to stop something in time…"

Danny walked back up to Steve as if placating a worked-up animal and reached out to cup his face. He took his time, making sure Steve's eyes were on his before he said anything, and when he did it was almost a whisper. "Not going to happen. Besides, I had a plan the whole time. If the smallpox was released, I was going to hold a forcefield over it."

Steve shook his head as much as he could in Danny's hold. "You can't hold protection barriers for long."

"Maybe not, but I'd do it for as long as I could and even if it wasn't enough, I'd have tried. I can't sit back, Steve, you know that. I'm good at my job; you gotta let me do it. You can't protect me from everything."

"Yes, I can," Steve's hands came up to hold lightly on Danny's wrists, pulling them from his face and holding them between them, in front of his heart. "I will."

Danny could only smile. He always felt warm when Steve's determination showed. Yes, it had that hint of his possessive, protective, vampire-addled self in it, but it was a fierce determination to make sure Danny was okay. It meant Danny was still around to take care of Grace and to keep Steve from going more insane. He was perfectly fine with that, and always would be.

Being out in the open, he couldn't stay in their cozy moment for long and he pulled back, wiped his hands down his shirt and turned to take in the others. Callen and Sam were sitting on the low wall, watching as the CDC swooped in for the smallpox vials, but also keeping an eye on the Five-0 guys, probably just as curious yet respectful as Danny had felt for them. 

Chin approached at Steve's side again, his shoulders slumped and his phone still in hand. "Malia is going to kill me."

"What happened?" Danny asked. 

"I've got a voicemail from her. She said two airline companies have already called her today to let her know that stand-by tickets had become available if she wanted to take one."

"You didn't tell her anything last night?" Steve asked.

"No?" Chin hedged. "I thought it was safer that way. I thought the airlines would call me, not her. Now I have to explain when I get home."

Steve shook his head and huffed as he clapped Chin's shoulder. "You are in deep trouble, my man."

Chin grimaced. "If she asks, you went just as crazy about Danny's safety, okay? Maybe crazier."

"What about Kono?" Danny asked. He hadn't really thought about it before. He'd partially assumed that Chin had probably made contingency plans for his family member too.

"Seriously?" Chin asked. "If I'd tried anything she'd have staked me."

"That is true," Danny nodded.

*

They left the HPD techs and CDC in charge of the scene and left. There was very little they could do anymore. 

Although Steve owed Sam a steak dinner, it was still only lunch time so Sam and Callen settled for taking a trip to Kamekona's instead. Sam, of course, reminded Steve that it didn't make up for the steak and he still wanted that. This should just be considered a 'welcome to Hawaii' lunch treat.

Steve was paying… at least half. He might not realize it, but Danny took twenty dollars from his wallet that morning, so they were mostly covered. 

Kamekona laid on a treat for them. Steve only picked at the food. Kamekona had become so used to serving them, that he had a supplier of blood packs. He didn't sell them, he didn't have a license to do so, but Steve turned a blind eye and was instead able to get some when needed, usually disguised in a beer bottle.

Sam wolfed down a lot of shrimp and Callen seemed to have relaxed more around them. He probably had a great weight lifted from him and was finally beginning to realize it. 

Although they were sitting opposite each other, Steve made a point of keeping hold of Danny's hand across the table top. It made it difficult for him to eat, but he indulged Steve and besides, he quite liked it anyway. 

"So are you going to explain about the two of you at some point?" Sam asked after Kamekona left again after dropping off more shrimp.

"Explain what?" Steve asked. 

"Come on, dog." Sam sat back a little, taking in the both of them with knowing eyes. "It's pretty clear there's more to you two than meets the eye. And I have ears. What's with the protector thing?"

Danny cleared his throat and leaned on the table. Steve gestured with his free hand to let Danny take the lead. "We met about two years ago, almost two years anyway. Short version is that after that things got weird. Longer version…" he weighed up how to say it and just settled for bullet points of the big fact. "Turns out I have magic. Steve can see it even though he's a vamp. The Guild found out, they're training me, and lately we've discovered the magic works better so long as Steve is with me."

"That makes no sense," Callen said. "Vampires get twitchy around magic, they can't affect it. How can McGarrett be involved in it?"

So _that_ was why Callen had been twitchy since arriving. He may only be a half-blood, but being so close to Danny was probably why he'd been acting a little strange. He'd seemed off, and since they'd only just met, Danny had put it down to his natural demeanor and the blood feud, but Danny was probably a factor in it, even if none of them had really realized before now.

"It's a big complicated mess," Danny said. "All to do with witches and old spells and things going wrong… we don't have all the answers yet ourselves."

"Wait," Sam held his fork up and pointed it at Danny. "Kensi was in Hawaii a few months back doing something for some Guild director she knew. She wouldn't tell us what it was but said it was a complicated issue about powerful magic."

Steve nodded. "That was us."

"So you work with Kensi?" Sam nodded at Danny's question. "So that means you work with a witch in training… and your boss is a witch?" Sam nodded again. Danny turned to Callen. "So then you really must just be all twitchy all the time. A half-vampire surrounded by magic, that can't be fun."

"I've become used to it over the years," Callen responded. "And if it wasn't for Hetty, I don't know where I'd be. She never let the vampire side of me affect anything between us."

"Still," Danny moved his shoulders to act out a 'twitchiness'. "You probably thought coming here would be a bit freeing. Sorry to disappoint."

"I was prepared to meet McGarrett. Sam filled me in, told me you were territorial in a very old school way, so I was ready to face up to you," he smiled at Steve who had begun to relax in Callen's presence now. "But I was wondering why I felt off-kilter."

"Most vampires don't even realize they're around magic until they try something and fail. Danny gets a kick out of it with the perps sometimes."Steve squeezed Danny's hand. "I'm surprised a halfling would be able to notice at all."

"Like I said, when you spend a lot of time in a witch's presence, you can identify the feeling. But I didn't put two and two together here; I really should have."

Danny's phone rang in his pocket and he had to abandon Steve's hand to dip in and fish it out. "Hey, Kono, what's up, you and Chin on your way?"

"I just got off the phone with the CDC. The vials you recovered from Comescu did not contain smallpox." 

Danny looked up at Steve and knew he'd been listening in as his face fell. 

"Hold on," Danny turned away from the others. "What are you talking about?"

"They were saline," Chin put in across the line. "The virus is still out there."

"Comescu thought it was smallpox, he was ready to break the thing out in public to expose Callen so someone else had to switch the vials."

"We think we know who," Kono took over again. "The doctor who was running the experiments."

"Don't move," Danny turned back to the others. "Come on, we gotta go."

The four of them made their way to the cars. Danny rode with Steve this time, leaving Callen and Hanna to follow in their borrowed SUV. Danny kept his phone line open and put it on speaker once they were in the car, knowing they needed a location from Kono and Chin in order to go after the doctor. 

"His name is Doctor Jarrod Prodeman. He's a formerly highly respected epidemiologist. I was able to match his voice from the experiment video to some old lectures posted online."

"Hold up, why formerly respected?" Steve asked of Kono.

"Evidently he was disgraced after he faked some data to obtain a research grant and he hasn't been able to work since."

"Great, so he decided to start making biological weapons. Perfect," Danny glanced at Steve, who was clearly not happy again to be on the trail of the smallpox they thought they were free from. 

"So Comescu gets the smallpox from Russia, gives it to Prodeman to modify, but Prodeman double crosses him and keeps it for himself," Chin theorized over the line. 

"But why double cross the guys he's working for?" Kono asked. 

"Maybe he found another buyer." Danny suggested.

"Hold on," Kono started and there was silence on the line for a moment. "Guys, don't come to HQ. TSA has Prodeman booked on a flight departing for Los Angeles in fifteen minutes.

"Send a picture of Prodeman to TSA, tell them to ground that plane but do not move on him until we get there," Steve ordered.

Arriving at the airport, the four made their way through the terminal and were greeted by a TSA security guard who filled them in as much as he could. The plane was grounded and the passengers were being held at the gate, but they hadn't spotted Prodeman in the group.

As they took in the assembled people Sam turned to Danny. "Anything you can do to narrow him down?"

"What, like magic? No, I don't know of any way to make a criminal stand out from a crowd. If I did, the streets would be a lot safer trust me." He looked over to the desk. "But there is something else I can do."

The others watched as Danny went to the airline worker at the desk and asked her to page Prodeman and offer him an upgrade. It was sly, but it would get a reaction and that was what they needed. Except the one person who did respond was not Prodeman, even though he had his ticket. 

As they interrogated him, standing there just outside the gate, it became clear that Prodeman had managed to evade them by giving this guy a sob story in order to switch tickets. 

"Wait, he was traveling with a woman?" Danny asked, picking up on that detail. 

After finding out the flight information, Sam put a call in to Los Angeles and to their team back there to track the flight. He hung up with a resigned look and Danny saw that Steve had once again listened in because he was barely keeping anger in check. 

"We got a problem, the flight landed at LAX five minutes ago."

"So our suspect is on the mainland with nine vials of smallpox," Danny stated and then rubbed at his face.

Grace was on the mainland. They had to catch this guy.


	2. Chapter 2

They'd borrowed the Governor's plane to get them to LA as fast as possible. Once in the air, they had struggled to make contact with the NCIS team on the mainland, but they would get there as fast as possible. Steve had already had a word with the pilot, trying to get them to push it faster. 

Danny forgave him his abruptness. He was worried about Grace, and knew that Steve had sensed that in him and was following suit. Although further than LA and out of whatever range this epidemic could start in, she was still far too close to it for Danny's liking and he kept rubbing his hands together with nervous energy. 

"Maybe Danny can do something to get us there faster," Sam said. Steve shot him a dark look and Danny just rolled his eyes at the bad assumption. 

"Because teleportation is a real thing witches can do," he answered sarcastically. "Seriously, even if there is something, I'm probably terrible at it."

"Don't say that, Danny," Steve said, taking his seat beside him and hooking his arm over Danny's on the armrest. 

"I don't think fireballs are useful or encouraged in a small, confined space such as this," he gestured around the plane's interior. 

"Your skills are developing fine," Steve hated when Danny talked himself down. 

"I know, but I've only been training for about a year. I don't expect to be saving the world yet, babe." Danny squeezed Steve's arm and sat back. "Let's just concentrate on catching this guy with some good old fashioned detective work."

"I wish you'd stayed back on Oahu," Steve mumbled. Aware of the words spoken briefly before and how they didn't really need to elaborate because it was the same kind of conversations they'd had before. 

Danny turned his head to Steve and gave him a look that spoke volumes about how done he was with said conversation. He didn't bother to say anything. Even if he was going to, the connection to the NCIS base seemed to be getting better.

"Callen?" the tinny voice came through the speakers. 

"We're here, Nell. Can you hear us?" Callen answered her.

The joy of finally being back in contact with the world was short-lived: the plane with Prodeman had already disembarked. Sitting on their own plane there was nothing they could do, and they had to hope the team on the ground would be able to catch up to him.

*

They were picked up from the airstrip by a black SUV, which Danny decided not to comment on, even though it was tempting. Their driver didn't say much, but he was NCIS and in on some kind of government loop because Callen and Sam had no problem discussing matters of the case in front of him. 

When they arrived at the NCIS office, it certainly wasn't what Danny expected. The old building, with its Spanish influence must be a good disguise, but it made him wonder why they felt it so necessary to hide their 'special operations' from prying eyes. If black helicopters were involved, he'd never hear the end of it from Steve. 

Inside, the building still held onto its architectural and design history, except there was a clear modern touch with the amount of desks and computers and whatnot in various conclaves, but they weren't being invited in to critique how the place looked; they had a job to do. 

Callen introduced them to Detective Marty Deeks, but they already knew Kensi.

"Wish we were meeting again under better circumstances," Danny nodded to her.

"How's everything going anyway? You look good," she said, while fixing her pony tail. 

"Yeah," Danny glanced over at Steve, noticing his frown. "Yeah, things are better, there's been advancement, I guess, you could call it."

So… you're a witch too?" Deeks asked looking between everyone like he was the last to find out. 

"Something like that," Danny smiled tightly.

"Something indeed," a voice came from behind, including herself into the circle and looking Danny up and down. "When you burn as brightly as you do, Detective, 'something' can be a bit of an understatement."

"I'm sorry, I uh…"

"Operations Manager Hetty Lange," Sam put in, introducing them. "This is Detective-"

"Detective Daniel Williams and Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett. I appreciate you being here to help us out, gentlemen."

"We felt we had to see it through," Steve finally spoke. "There's too much at risk to step back now." Steve's eyes were carefully on Hetty. He already knew Kensi was a witch and his vampire prowess would be dampened, but Danny wasn't sure if the presence of two witches would severely weaken Steve further. And he also didn't know if Steve realized Hetty was a witch, too. After all, Kensi had spoken to Danny on her visit to Hawaii, not Steve, and they hadn't spoken in detail of the conversation, leaving that as a private thing between two new friends. 

"Indeed." Hetty, for such a small statured woman, clearly had no fear of the large vampire Navy SEAL in front of her and just gave him a steady look. "Perhaps having a vampire will play in our favor. We seem to have assembled quite a strong supernatural team here. Quite coincidental, of course."

"So you're a vampire," Deeks pointed at Steve then to Danny, "And you're… magic. That leaves Sam and I as the only real humans around here? That's a little weird, makes me feel a bit…"

"Inferior?" Sam put in.

"No, no, I wasn't going to say that…"

"Well, whatever you say, leave me out of it. I'm a Navy SEAL. I don't need any other powers than that."

Deeks shook off whatever he was feeling with a laugh and clapped his hands together, "So, let's move on. We were able to detain most of the passengers and flight crew at baggage claim. The health department is looking over them now."

"Any word on Prodeman?" Callen asked, having been rather quiet up to now.

"Eric is looking into it," Kensi answered.

"Perhaps the two of you," she motioned to Kensi and Deeks, "can look after our guests while I speak with the two of you." She pointed at Callen and Sam to follow her.

Danny and Steve moved to a set of desks where they were able to dump their packs and be brought up to speed on what had been happening in LA while they were in the air. They were told more about the dead woman that had been found on the plane. While Kensi was following up on more information, they were left at rather a loose end. Danny moved closer to Steve who seemed focused. 

"You okay?" He asked. 

"I'm just…" Steve pointed to where Callen and Hanna had disappeared with Hetty. He was visibly straining, his ability dampened with Kensi sitting across from him.

"Are you eavesdropping? That's not right, Steve," he admonished. Steve shushed him, then dropped his hand to Danny's wrist and held it lightly. His concentration seemed to relax with the touch. 

"They're talking about what'll happen if this goes public, it's nothing top secret."

"That doesn't matter. You don't listen in on private conversations. If you were supposed to know about it, they'd have invited you."

"Hetty is a witch, isn't she," Steve said. He must have cottoned on after all, and Danny just gave a curt nod. "Then she is also likely a lot older than she looks. She's been around long enough to know vampires have excellent hearing, even if a witch's presence does normally dampen it. She probably knows I'm listening in, or at least trying to."

"That still doesn't give you an excuse-" Danny stopped as Steve's hand tightened on his wrist. "And what 'normally'…"

"They're coming," Steve cut Danny off.

A few seconds later Hetty came around the corner flanked by Callen and Hanna and was carrying a box with her. Kensi hung up the phone, telling everyone they had the address from a taxi company for where Prodeman was dropped off. Deeks had an address on the dead woman they'd found in the plane.

"Excellent," Hetty said. "But Detectives Deeks and Williams need a smallpox inoculation before we can go any further."

"Why just us?" Deeks looked worried. 

"Because everybody else already had the vaccine, or doesn't need one." Sam practically sing-songed, enjoying the look of fear in Deeks' eyes.

"Is there a pill we can take?" Deeks hedged.

"A patch?" Danny put in, not liking the sound of it anymore than Deeks. 

"Nasal spray?" Deeks put in as a valiant effort. "Uhm, okay… guests, we have guests. He should go first." 

"I gotta work on my sleeve here, buddy," Danny smiled over to him, futzing to push his up. "If there's one thing I wish I'd got alongside the magic, it would be immunity to diseases. Ironic, really," he turned to Steve, knowing only his partner would understand that point. If Danny was supposed to be some magic cure for all the world's ills, it would be nice if he himself didn't have to worry about these things.

"We don't take chances, Danny," Steve pulled on Danny's wrist, drawing him closer so that he could get his jab. "Besides, I still think there's something off about that theory anyway."

Steve had never overtly said he didn't believe what they'd theorized about Danny's purpose and that gave him a momentary surprise that allowed Steve to shove him towards Hetty. Sure, they'd discussed things, debated, but he'd never outright said he didn't think it was right. This was the closest statement he'd ever come to that. But he didn't have time to think about it now, because the needle was rather large, and Deeks was already on the floor.

*

They headed to the hotel Prodeman had checked into, following behind Sam and Callen who were leading the way. Deeks and Kensi were off looking into the dead woman from the plane. 

Walking up to the doors of the hotel, Steve's arm shot out to stop Danny in his tracks. When they realized they were on their own, Sam and Callen turned back. 

"Everything okay?" Callen asked. 

"Yeah," Steve was looking around them and took his time answering. "You check the room, Danny and I will have a word with the manager."

Sam nodded and with a lingering, questioning look, he and Callen turned back to the door and headed in. 

Danny turned his eyes onto Steve. "I thought you liked having opportunities to break down doors."

"I don't always break down doors."

"I would argue that, but it isn't my point. We're hanging back?" Danny knew his glare was making Steve uncomfortable by how he shifted from foot to foot. Danny just waited for his answer. He knew he'd get it; the silence wouldn't last for long.

"The virus might be in the room."

"Ah," Understanding dawned. "I did just get a jab against it, you know. And even if it is up there, I've got no plans to touch anything without gloves on. I'm not an idiot."

"I know, just… humor me," Steve's eyes were soft.

"I'm not going to argue with you," Danny sighed. His let his shoulders relax and turned to have a look around the outside of the hotel. Steve spoke to the manager about Prodeman's room, but he didn't have much information for them. Danny wandered around, trying to get a feel for the place and headed back outside into the sun, feeling Steve's eyes on him, despite the fact that the vampire should be paying attention to the manager. There were a few people hanging around and he showed them the picture, but he got nothing that was remotely helpful to the case, just one whack job.

He stepped up to a young man who was leaning against the wall of the building next door. He pulled out the photo and asked him if he'd seen Prodeman, ignoring the prickle at the back of his neck that warned him about the man. He looked at the photo, but only after giving Danny a flirtatious smile and sidling a little closer to look. Danny just went with it, in case the guy had information that was useful. He took his time looking and was about to answer when he looked up and his eyes blackened at the site of something behind Danny. 

With a turn, Danny saw Steve walking up with wide steps, teeth bared. When he turned back to his possible witness and saw how dark his eyes had become, he realized this was a vampire.

"Hey," Steve's voice rang out. "Use your nose, buddy, he's off limits. Scram!"

"Hey, hey…" Danny tried to call him back, but the vamp was darting off into the crowd with a cursory glance behind to make sure Steve wasn't after him. "Well, thanks for scaring away the witness," Danny scolded Steve. 

Steve patted down Danny's arms, like he was wiping away invisible lint. "He didn't know anything."

"And how would you know, and would you stop it?" Danny pushed Steve's hands away.

"No one else you've talked to saw him, and that guy hadn't been standing here long, there's barely any scent on the wall. He was just trying to get close to you." Steve leaned forward and took a deep breath in at Danny's neck before pulling back. "Even with your magic dampening him, he should still have smelled me on you. I can smell me on you."

"Yeah, but you did it from about a millimeter away from me, he didn't."

"I didn't need to, I could smell it from over there," Steve pointed over to the door to the hotel he'd come out of. 

"So why…?" Danny gestured to his neck, wiping his hand where Steve had just been.

He didn't say anything, just smirked and turned, seeing Sam and Callen back outside again and he began walking over, expecting Danny to follow.

They ducked under the crime scene tape. 

"Manager says Prodeman's had no incoming or outgoing phone calls or visitors. Room's only rented for one night, so he hasn't even been here long enough for staff or guests to get a good look at him."

"You try the locals?" Callen asked. 

"Yeah, not so helpful," Danny took over. "Though I did speak to one woman who saw Jesus fishing off the pier, and Steve chased off a vampire kid who pushed his luck. And I thought Hawaii was where all the crazy lived."

"Maybe you just attract it. Better get out before the full moon," Sam joked. 

Danny half laughed, "Very good. Werewolves are extinct though."

"Who said anything about werewolves?" Sam's eyes danced with amusement at Danny's expense and Steve, the idiot, just stood there with an unhelpful expression as he gazed forward. 

"Maybe we missed him," Callen offered.

"Maybe not," Steve said and everyone's eyes turned to where he was looking. The lone figure in dark clothing with a backpack in front of them in a sea of tourists. They hadn't been very subtle so he could obviously see them all looking at him. It didn't take a genius to work out what would happen next, as Prodeman turned and bolted. 

Hanna shouted out to him, announcing them, but it didn't work. It rarely did. The two SEALs took off at a run while Callen and Danny hung back. There was no point in all of them chasing him down and besides, this is why they made Navy SEALs, right?

Danny admired Steve's running, tilting his head to follow his progress around people, stands and signs until Prodeman made a mistake, tripping up on the beach and now had two men much larger than he, kneeling on his back. 

"Think that hurt as bad as it looked?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, that's gonna leave a mark," Callen answered.

*

Danny called Grace while Steve kept an eye on the interrogation of Prodeman. He missed his little girl so much and with everything going on around them, he found it difficult to find a moment to speak with her. If anything happened, he needed to know that he'd told her how much he loved her.   
She was due to fly back to Hawaii in a few days, but if this went south, she might be stuck on the mainland. One thing he'd immediately thought about after being given the smallpox jab by Hetty, was that Grace hadn't had one. But he refused to dwell on those dark thoughts and where they led. 

He kept upbeat on the phone, listening to her talking about how her grandparents were and what they'd been up to. He let her voice and enthusiasm wash over him and relaxed hearing it. All too soon he had to hang up and turned to find Kensi and Deeks had returned. 

They gave him an expectant look as he hung up, thinking he may have been digging up more information for the case. "I just thought I should call my daughter," he explained, his voice giving a small break that drew Steve's attention.

"We get anything from Prodeman?" Kensi asked.

"Just a name; Doctor Rachel Holden. Your techs are running it down now. You doing okay?"

Steve's eyes followed Danny as he paced by the desk. "Yeah, fine. Just debating where the safest place on Earth is and how fast I can get Gracie there, is all."

"She'll be fine. You'll both be fine."

"I'm still worried," Danny repeatedly clenched and opened his hands as they hung by his sides. 

"Join the club," Steve took the last few steps between them and ran a hand down Danny's arm and into his waiting hand. "Stop stressing. Why don't you do some of those relaxation things Joe taught you."

"Not going to happen. We've got work to do. And we're missing something here," he said as he turned back to the small group and tried to help with researching.

*

"None of the victims in Hawaii have any links to Holden or even to LA," Deeks put in before leaning back in his seat with a yawn. They'd been at it for an hour and were failing to come up with anything useful, or even plausible.

"Without an actual link, what we're missing is motive. If she doesn't have anything to do with Comescu, then what does she get out of this, huh? With Comescu it was his whole blood feud, terrorist thing. Prodeman is a disgraced scientist; he was just in it for the cash. What's this Holden chick up to and why? On paper, she's got a good life."

"We can ask her when we find her," Steve said then scowled. "When was the last time you ate?"

"No idea, why?"

"You need to eat."

"I'm assuming they don't have a whole lot to eat here in this secret hideout…?" He looked at Deeks expectantly. 

"There's a taco truck around the corner."

"It'll do. I'll go grab something and be back in five," Steve stated, like he was doing a strategic op.

"Woah, hold on, what about you? When was the last time you fed?" Danny grabbed Steve's wrist before he could dash off, his chair pulling back onto two legs with Steve's momentum before it dropped back to all four.

"Back in Hawaii before we left, but I'm fine, I can go days without." Steve pulled Danny's hand from him. "Vampire, remember? No need to worry about me." He bent down and laid a quick kiss on Danny's lips and then turned and left before Danny could say much else. 

Kensi was staying quiet beside them, staring at her laptop intently, letting them be while Deeks was grinning like an oaf and Danny couldn't help himself. "Can I help you with something?"

"Nothing, just marveling at the cuteness. You guys practice all that?"

"Cute?" Danny laughed. "That's nice, thanks."

"Hand holding, stealing kisses…"

"You're sounding a bit jealous there, my friend," Danny's eyes darted to Kensi then back to Deeks.

"Jealous? Of what? I'm not jealous, why would I be jealous?"

"Maybe if you put a little effort in," Danny waved one hand in the general direction of Deeks' head. "You know, before leaving the house? Then you might attract someone."

"Hey, style by pillow," Deeks pointed to his hair. "This is my look."

"It's not a look, it's a mess."

Deeks ducked his head and gave a rye laugh. "That's funny, it's good, you're funny. I hope my witty banter isn't this annoying."

"Whoever said you were witty?" Kensi put in, stopping the back and forth.

"Oh, touché," Deeks smiled to his partner. 

Danny looked between the two of them, sensing the ease of their partnership and in jokes that he wasn't a part of. It didn't matter though; he knew what it was like and what it meant to have a partner like that. He'd had three great ones in his time and had loved all of them, even if one was a deranged vampire SEAL. Kensi had an easy way about her around Deeks and Danny could understand how the LAPD cop, despite his insufferable nature, could bring out something good in her. She needed it, that time to banter and enjoy some fun around her job and her witch training. He felt much the same, and was relieved to think about how he had Steve and Grace, not to mention Chin and Kono, to keep him grounded and sane.

"Is that it? Are you out?" Danny asked. 

"I'm out," Deeks responded, giving up on their banter.

"So," Kensi shifted gears. "I know you've been looking for Shelburne. Any word?"

"Nothing," Danny sighed. "Joe seems to think she'll make herself known when she's ready. Only thing is, I don't want to work to her schedule, I want to work to mine."

"It's possible Hetty knows something," Kensi said. "But whether or not she'll tell you is up for debate."

"I got that impression," Danny nodded. "But it's worth a try. Once all the crazy dies down."

Kensi's phone pinged and she grabbed it from her pocket. "We've got an address on Holden." She nodded to Deeks who stood to go with her. 

"Don't break anything while we're gone," Deeks threw back at Danny, as they left, leaving him alone waiting for Steve. 

He rubbed a hand over his face. With the noise around him dialed down he realized how exhausted he was. His head fell into his hands as he sat with them braced on the table. 

"You look beat," Steve's voice carried over from behind having arrived back. 

"Yeah, I'm getting used to it though," he lifted his head and turn to give Steve a smile as he placed food in front of him. 

"Maybe you should try and get some rest after you've eaten," Steve placed a chaste kiss on Danny's head as he sat next to him. 

"I'll sleep when the case is closed."

*

They had more information on Rachel Holden. At least, they knew now that she was planning to leave the next morning so they were running out of time. And they also knew that in order to protect herself, she'd had to have someone steal the vaccine Danny had been so forcefully introduced to earlier in the day. 

Their best lead, since they couldn't find Holden, was to find out what the thief knew, which put Steve, Danny, Sam and Callen at a beaten down trailer by the beach, which wasn't an ideal location because, well… the beach. And most people, unlike Danny, actually enjoyed going to the beach for fun and seemed to be out in force today. 

Steve and Danny scouted the area while Sam and Callen watched from the car and kept abreast of anything happening back at their office.

"So we've got three out front, two on the inside, as far as we can see anyway," Steve said, leaning in the passenger window next to Sam. Danny approached on Callen's side of the car.

"And every one of them is packing," Danny put in.

"This place will clear out when the sun goes down, but we don't have time for that," Sam reasoned.

"SOP would be to lock down the area and send in a tactical hazmat team," Callen said.

"I like that," Danny agreed, "Send in the professional bug hunters."

"Unfortunately," Callen continued," These people are paranoid by nature, they see us clearing the area they're going to go ballistic. Same thing if they see someone in a hazmat suit."

Sam and Steve both nodded their agreement, and Danny had to reluctantly admit they had a point. 

"Callen's right," Steve looked between them. "We can try and take these guys quietly but if they decide to open up with all these tourists around it could lead to a bloodbath."

Sam had been watching something else. "Maybe we don't take them quietly."

Steve turned to see where he was looking and there was a matching pair of SEAL smiles. The crazy, it must definitely come from the SEALs. 

"Why are you smiling?" Danny pointed at Sam, then Steve. "Steve, babe, why are you smiling? Why are you smiling now too, why is everyone smiling apart from me?"

"You can smile," Sam turned his grinning face to Danny.

"No, no, I only smile when I'm happy and this doesn't make me happy, it makes me nervous."

"So give me a nervous smile."

Danny did his best; actually enjoying hearing the other three give proper laughs to alleviate any tension before they did whatever crazy stunt they had planned.

"Something like that," Sam laughed before high-fiving Steve and getting out of the car.

They actually played a game of rock, paper, scissors to decide between the two SEALs to see who got to drive the digger, and Sam won. You would have thought the noise would give it away, but the perps still seemed surprised and thought it was an earthquake a first; which pretty much summed up their IQs. It didn't take much to subdue them once Sam had thrown their trailer onto its side. Then all they could do was round them up and call out the hazmat team.

*

Steve, Danny and Callen all waited around by the police cordon tape while Sam donned gear and headed in with them. 

"Let's just hope the vials are there and nothing has been passed onto Holden yet," Danny said to the other two as he rubbed his hands together impatiently.

"I dunno. If they had them, you'd think they'd be doing something more than sitting around playing cards," Callen argued.

"Considering how dumb they are, we could be in luck," Danny hedged.

Sam came out of the trailer and took his mask off. Even before he said the words, they just knew what it would be. "It's not here," Sam confirmed.

"Say hello to square one," Danny sighed. 

*

It was depressing. As they dug into Holden's history they came across disturbing evidence that she was more of a nut than in this for profit. Money was always a much easier motive to deal with, but when it came to steadfast belief, there was usually very little you could do to talk someone down from a ledge. 

If Holden truly believed that letting off a plague to thin the human population was somehow a way to save the Earth, all they could do was hope to catch up with her and stop it. They had very little hope in her backing off from her scheme.

"Maybe she plans to take the virus with her," Danny supposed. 

Steve shook his head. "Costa Rica seems more like a place to hide out, not a place to spread a pandemic. She'd need somewhere to spread it as quickly as possible."

"Like an international airport." Callen had a point: she could release it before getting on the plane.

"We've had all the airports on high alert, she's got to know we'd be looking for that," Danny argued back. 

"I think I've got something," the small red-headed witch approached them. Nell? Danny was sure that was her name. He hadn't spent any time with her yet, but he could see the strong magic in her and they both gave each other assessing glances before concentrating on the matter in hand. "Two months ago she ordered enough office supplies to stock a small business. Didn't think anything of it until I found this." She put an image on the screen in front of them of a shirt order form. "An order for 300 custom t-shirts from a local clothing company and when I called the office supply store they confirmed that most of the order was school supplies."

"Wait a minute, she's targeting kids?" Danny asked, sickened.

"They're a dispersal mechanism," Callen realized. 

"The British gave blankets infected with smallpox to the Native Americans," Sam said.

"Give a kid a t-shirt, he takes it home, he infects his family," Steve rounded up.

"She could be donating them to schools," Sam tried, then Kensi gasped from behind them.

"Do you remember when we were at the airport?" She asked Deeks. "There was that group of teenagers at baggage claim."

"A class trip of sorts," Deeks remembered.

"Too late for spring break, right?" Danny thought. 

"No, no, there was a group of Japanese students and I'm pretty sure I heard other kids speaking German." Kensi concentrated on her tablet computer then swore under her breath as she sent what she'd found to the monitor. "International Leaders of Tomorrow. High school seniors representing 36 different countries are gathering for a series of lectures and exercises designed to encourage dialogue, understanding, tolerance and friendship."

"We need to shut it down," Sam sighed. 

"That's too late," Callen inclined his head at the screen. "It started an hour ago."

*

The courtyard was crowded with teenagers and teachers. There were stands everywhere for charities and events and all of them were giving out free stuff to the kids to try and drum up support, which made it more difficult to spot Holden in the crowd. 

They kept to their regular partnerships as they made their way around, trying to work in some form of grid pattern. It was Steve and Danny who saw something first, noticing the logo on the t-shirts the two kids were digging out of brown bags. 

They ran over, shouting to them to put the bags down.

"What's your damage, dude?" One of the teenage boys asked. 

"My 'damage' is that I'm a cop and I just saved your life," Danny snapped back.

"Where did you get these?" Steve asked.

"They're giving them away for free at the stand over there," he pointed back the way he'd come. Steve was immediately telling everyone else over the comms units that they had a location on Holden in the south east corner. 

Kensi and Deeks were nearer and they heard Deeks yell out to Holden that they were Federal Agents but as with all criminals, she heard the call and then ran for it.

All six of them gave chase, ducking and weaving, trying to keep track of her as she shoved people and things out of her way in attempts to block them from all angles. Danny noted that she was nearing the edge of the stalls and decided to run round and try and cut her off while she still concentrated on the others chasing her. He ran down the side of the road, glancing back every so often to check how far in front of her he was.

She made her way to a car and was able to get in before Sam and Callen caught up to her. In her efforts to evade them, she gave little regard to the kids around her and the two agents had to pull two teenagers out the way of the car, giving Holden a chance to get further away. 

As they cleared the built up area, the other five were able to draw weapons on the car. But before they could do much there was Danny ahead of the car, facing it down, stunned for a moment over what to do as it sped towards him.

He heard the cry of his name, he heard the fear in Steve's voice and then, on instinct more than anything else, he threw his hands up in the air, screwed his eyes shut, and stood his ground.

*


	3. Chapter 3

The car crashed into an invisible barrier, its front end mangled all to hell and the woman inside sat hunched over the wheel in shock. 

Steve watched everything in slow motion as the car sped towards Danny and there had been nothing he could do to get there fast enough to stop it hitting him. 

The others ran forward, shouting to her to get out of the car, leading her away despite her protests that she was doing the right thing. Steve didn't care though, because he'd seen her speed up, intent on crashing into Danny with no regard for his or any other life. She could spout whatever she wanted; he wouldn't believe she had any good intentions. 

In fact, it was best for her is she was kept far away from him. He bared his fangs as he rushed forward, intent at first to sate revenge but then he saw Danny was standing there, clear as day, just the way he had been before the car crashed and it took the fire out of Steve's belly long enough for Sam and Callen to move Holden away for a proper arrest. 

Steve ran up to the forcefield the car had slammed into and pressed his hands to the transparent surface, right over where Danny's were holding it in place.

"Danny?" He called out to him on the other side of it, but Danny didn't respond. His face was stuck in a look of fear and horror. Even behind those closed eyes, Steve knew Danny had been scared for his life right in that moment and now he was almost frozen in that expression - one Steve was determined to never see on his face again. 

"Danny, Danny…" he kept calling his name as he followed his hand along the protective barrier, trying to find its end, which turned out to be about a six foot radius. Finally getting there, he darted around and crouched under his partner's outstretched hands. "Danny?" he asked quietly. 

"Is he okay?" Kensi asked from behind, having stayed close by, concern emanating from her.

"He's umm… he's not come out of it," Steve turned briefly to her then put his concentration back on Danny. He carefully laid a hand on Danny's shoulder, running it to the back of his neck and his upper back. "It's happened before but only in training and just a couple of times, never out in the field."

Kensi came to Danny's other side, "Maybe I can help." She reached out to him, but Steve threw up his hand to catch hers. 

"No, no, it's my job. I'm his protector, it's our connection, I can bring him out of this."

She nodded, but stayed right where she was. He was happy to have her influence there, she was calmer than him and that was steadying as he took a deep breath and continued to give Danny grounding touches and soft murmurs into his ear. 

"Come on, Danny, you did it, you stopped her and you're okay, come back to me…"

Danny groaned, his eyes still closed but his head drooped; tired with the effort he put in. With a small flash around them, Steve knew the barrier had been dropped and Danny's hands fell to his sides as his whole body gave out.

"Whoa, easy there," Steve placated as he grabbed Danny to stop his fall and they lowered themselves to the ground with Kensi's help. 

"I have no plans to do that ever again," Danny blinked his eyes open, taking in the two people beside him. 

"I am going to kill you, I swear," Steve ground out, but the dry kiss to Danny's forehead gave away his true feelings. 

"No you're not," Danny argued with a small wave of his tired hand.

"You are in so much trouble. Do you have any idea how stupid that was?" Steve shook Danny's shoulders and the smaller man winced at the movement. 

"Isn't that normally my line?" he asked. 

"You shouldn't have put yourself in danger like that. You know the rules about magic use and why would you run in front of a car?"

"I just… instinct I guess. We got her though, right?" Danny turned to Kensi for answers, knowing Steve was too wound up to care about what else had gone on in the background. 

"She's in custody. And we have the vials. All accounted for. You did good," she smiled and patted his leg, but then when Steve glared at her she amended it with a stutter. "You uh… no, you did bad. Very bad."

"Don't let him frighten you," Danny said. "He's not going to do anything, look, he's hugging me like a five year old hugs a teddy bear, everything's fine."

Steve rocked them as he tightened his hold on Danny's waist, burying his nose in Danny's hair as he felt himself come down from the adrenalin rush of the chase and fear that he'd lost Danny. He'd been two steps from ripping her throat out before he'd seen Danny, and Callen and Sam had the foresight to get rid of her before Steve truly came out of the worried haze he was still somewhat in.

Danny squinted up at Steve. "You know the whole 'rest when the case is over' thing?" Steve nodded. "Think I might do that now…"

Danny's head dropped to Steve's shoulder and Steve pulled him in against his neck, a hand curled into Danny, fingers tangling in the ends of his hair. He sighed with relief as Danny succumbed to his exhaustion, not just from what he'd done with the forcefield, but from the last few days' worth of worry. But Danny had just helped save the world from a deadly outbreak, he deserved his rest. 

Steve bent to get his knees fully under him and lifted Danny in his arms. Kensi tried to help but she was unnecessary, however, she did help escort them back to one of the cars. Along the way she kept glancing looks at him and eventually gave in to her curiosity. 

"Danny needs you to make his magic work properly. You ground him, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"He doesn't affect you, does he," it wasn't a question. "Vampires and magic, we weaken each other, but if he's with you, you don't feel it so bad do you. I read about the incident with Hesse and Danny and how he was able to incapacitate him but… it works both ways, doesn't it."

"We've never really discussed it. It hasn't come up."

"But you've spent that last two days with me, Hetty and Nell around you at various times, that's three strong witches and yet I've not seen you back off at all. At first I thought it was just some kind of macho bullshit but I've been noticing things."

"And what have you noticed?" Steve asked, not sure if he wanted to know. Sure, he'd had some suspicions. He'd been honest when he'd said it hadn't come up, but he had noticed too, about the comfort and ease he found in things that shouldn't be so comfortable and easy… and it all depended on Danny.

"When you touch him, it makes you stronger. You reach out for his hand, or wrist, or shoulder. You may have just grounded him when he came out of that magic haze, but he does the same for you."

"You are a very perceptive woman, Kensi Blye." Steve waited for Kensi to open the car door so he could place Danny in the backseat. 

"It's a gift." She watched as he buckled Danny in and then reluctantly let go of him, their contact gone. 

He'd considered it, he was never sure if it was just his nature to be so tactile and perhaps it had a placebo effect on him, but he couldn't deny it when someone else pointed out the possibility. He had to agree with her. There was something in it, something about their connection, the circle of it. Whatever magic had deigned for them to be to one another, it was important to both of them. 

"Come on, I think you need to talk to Hetty," she gestured for him to get in, but he plucked the keys from her hand and made his way to the driver's side. As she gawped at him he leaned on the hood with a nonchalant smile. 

"I like to drive."

*

The NCIS Special Operations headquarters was a very open plan environment, but they'd been able to hide in a back area by Hetty's desk and had been able to make it pretty dark, allowing Danny to rest. 

It was a few hours before the Detective stirred and Steve had been by his side the whole time. 

He'd briefly spoken with the others, had joked as Sam lightened the mood as best he could. They'd done some reminiscing, they'd made fun of Deeks (something Steve was learning seemed to be a past time of the group). Nell and Eric had joined them and Steve had the opportunity to talk with the two people who had mainly been voices and images on a screen up until now. 

Hetty had remained noticeably absent until a few minutes before Danny woke. With a curious frown at the diminutive witch, Steve moved to sit on the end of the long couch Danny was on, the dip as he sat alerting Danny to his presence. 

"How's it going, big guy?" Steve asked, patting Danny's ankle as he rubbed the tiredness from his eyes. 

"I'm good. How long was I out?" 

"A couple of hours."

Danny blinked around the place, noticing where they were as his brain came back online. Then he huffed resignedly. "You had to carry me again, didn't you. We have really got to stop making a habit of that, it's embarrassing."

"You do realize no one cares about that except you. Especially me. And I'm the one doing the carrying. Also, I'm pretty sure it's okay to pass out after helping save the world."

"No one else did," Danny pointed out.

Steve weighed the argument up. "No one else used magic to do so. When they weren't supposed to."

Danny made a 'blah blah' gesture with his hand and sat up swinging his legs from the couch.

"I trust you are feeling no ill effects from your efforts this afternoon, Detective?" Hetty's voice resonated around them. How she'd approached them with neither noticing was a mystery and yet, she was a witch, and that easily explained the skill.

"I'm fine," Danny plastered a smile to his face, sitting up straighter in her presence. 

"In the early period of training, things can seem overwhelming. It is entirely common. Of course, most students are not put in life and death situations when doing their learning."

"Because most of them are fifteen, I get it," Danny waved the comment off. 

"Not necessarily," Hetty perched on the edge of her desk. "Most don't have your potential, therefore never fall into such a trap."

"Speaking of potential," Steve began, sitting further forward as well, "we understand that you are an _experienced_ witch," he had no idea how else to say 'old' to her without seeming rude. "We've never met one before at least, not since everything happened between us."

"And you are curious about what I know. About the two of you."

"Basically," Steve nodded. 

"Yours is a tricky situation." She moved around her desk and slowly lowered herself into the seat, bracing her arms on the desk. "I was not there the night the project took place. I always had reservations about it. I was not a part of the governing group at the Guild who approved Shelburne's work."

"You didn't think it was possible?" Danny asked.

"No, what she proposed always seemed wrong to me. Whether it was possible for her to pull it off, I still don't know. But whether it was her true intent? That also remains to be seen."

"You're skeptical."

"I still am," she nodded. "That's not to say you weren't gifted great power, Detective. But its intent. That remains a mystery that won't be solved until Shelburne shows herself."

"I thought I was supposed to cure cancer or something," Danny shook his head, looking like the frustrations were building into another headache. 

"Or something." Hetty smiled ruefully. "Don't get me wrong, gentlemen. I do believe the connection between you is important to the future of magic and vampires alike, but to cure natural human illnesses? Why would your connection be necessary for something like that?"

"That is a fair point," Steve agreed. "I never believed what we were told."

"Your instincts serve you well."

"Does this put us back to the drawing board? Do we even trust the Guild, or anything we're told? There has to be someone who knows the truth."

"Shelburne," Hetty pointed out and Danny acquiesced. 

"She's not proved to be super helpful so far," he added after Hetty's interruption. 

"I'm sure answers will find you in time," she rose and gestured for them to follow her. "You wanted to find out what I knew, and this is what I can tell you. You are both important to each other in ways that magic and vampires have never been before. You are a focal point, a meeting of light and dark. There is a true reason that both of you, specifically, were chosen for this. Sacrifices were made for you to be who you are, gentlemen. You may get frustrated but it would be in your interests to honor those sacrifices."

They followed her out into the bullpen where she presented them with plane tickets back to Honolulu. Steve had already packed their stuff, he'd just had no idea when Danny would wake, or when he might need to do the waking, and he'd had time in those hours to organize everything. They said goodbye to everyone, hugged their new friends and had all hoped that next time they meet was under less life threatening circumstances. 

*

They'd contacted Chin and Kono before boarding their plane to let them know that the crisis had been averted. During their absence, Chin had refused to let Malia attend a conference in San Francisco. It had been pretty much the opposite of their original dilemma, where he had her on standby to get out of Hawaii should the shit hit the fan. Now that she had missed it for nothing (apparently she'd told Chin that she was confident they'd stop the small pox from being released) and had been proven right in her assumptions, he was going to be in for a world of trouble at home. 

Kono had been mysteriously happy to get away, citing 'plans' that she refused to talk about, so they knew that by the time they arrived back in Oahu, there'd be little point in heading to the office since no seemed to want to do any actual work. 

Instead they were going to go straight home.

Pulling up at the house, they were greeted by the sight of another car in the driveway. A blue mustang, an older model, sleek and good looking. Danny gave a low whistle as he saw it and turned to meet Steve's cautious glare. 

"What is it?" Danny asked. His remaining tiredness showed in his voice. He hadn't slept on the plane, despite giving Steve a dead arm by leaning against him. 

"I don't know anyone who owns a car like that, and neither do you."

"How would you know that?"

"Unless they bought it in the last few days, I know what all of our friends and relatives drive."

"You have files, don't you. On everyone you've ever met."

"No," Steve scoffed.

"Yes, you do. Some of them are frighteningly real while others are just part of the crazy in your head, but they exist. Just like zombies. All in your head."

"They're not in my head."

"The files or the zombies?"

"Just shut up."

They got out of the car and approached the house. There was nothing out of the ordinary. The door was locked, the alarm was set. It was as if the car had been abandoned out front. 

They made their way through the house, Steve taking point and Danny backing him up until they reached the sliding doors in the kitchen and could clearly see their visitor sitting down closer to the water, where the grass of the back yard began to turn into sand. 

Steve pushed the doors open and headed out. "You do realize you're trespassing, right?" he called out. Danny slapped his arm.

"What is wrong with saying 'hello' like a normal person?"

"She is trespassing," Steve argued back, his hand still on his waist, close enough to pull his gun at a moments notice. 

She stood from the ground and turned to them. Her shoulder length brown hair loose in the breeze, she wore skin tight black pants and a flowing red shirt. She made her way over towards them, hands out in apology when they weren't stopping her hair from whipping into her face, though her large sunglasses kept it from poking her eyes. 

"I apologize, Commander. I got sick of waiting out front. You landed two hours ago."

"We went to get food on the way home, who are you?" He kept his stance loose and crossed his arms as he stopped in front of her. 

"She's Joe's replacement," Danny said. Steve looked at him and then back to the woman. Of course, Danny would have seen magic in her and knowing they were expecting a woman with strong magic, he'd have put two and two together.

"He didn't tell you I was coming today?"

"He told us someone was coming, just not who or when or any of those nice details," Danny smiled, then held his hand out to her. "Danny Williams."

She shook his hand with a smile. "Catherine Rollins."

"Steve McGarrett," Steve introduced himself as he shook her hand as well. 

"You're not human," Danny hedged. He may be tired, but he seemed to be reading people well, as Catherine proved as she lowered her head and took her sunglasses off. 

Of course, mer people all looked like humans on land in most respects. Their magic allowed them to change their tails for legs, their gills for lungs but their eyes always remained in their aquatic form. When they covered them up, anyone would think they were human. Catherine's eyes were larger than a normal person's. Her pupils much wider, which was a reason mer folk always wore sunglasses on land. They were so used to the darkness of the underwater world; they weren't able to adapt too well to the bright sunshine. A mer could also move their eyes independently, to better view possible predators in the deep. With mammal-like eyes at the front of their heads, they didn't have good all-round vision, but with independent movement, something that evolved away from humans over time, they gave themselves back some advantage in their native water.

"Joe did mention water," Steve cottoned on. "I should have known he was being cryptic with his clues."

"He can be like that," Catherine agreed. 

"So you work for the Navy?" he asked, mentally making sure he knew who to go to in order to get his hands on her file. 

"Currently I do, I'm working with US Naval Intelligence, but officially I'm just on loan from the Pacific branch of the Pelagic Navy. If you want to read up on me, Commander, you are free to do so. I understand you are _careful_ around new people. You are a vampire after all, I would expect territorial behavior."

"Would you now?" he asked, his hackles raised by her officiousness and Danny just stood watching with an almost playful smile on his face.

She simply inclined her head before speaking again. "I know you must be tired, I only came by to introduce myself. We can get started on your training in the morning. I trust you've been keeping up with your exercises these last few weeks."

"Uhm, yeah, of course," Danny fobbed her off, but her grimace led her to, quite rightly, realize they'd been slacking. 

"We'll get started in the morning, you can impress me then," she walked off back around the house, glasses back on her face giving her eyes some relief again and they watched until she'd turned behind the wall and away from them. 

"What do you think?" Danny asked. 

"I don't know. I'll form a better opinion once I see her file," Steve started to make his way back into the house. 

"She kind of reminds me of you."

"What?" Steve turned his head back to Danny but kept moving forward. "She's nothing like me."

"She's got that whole military air. Yes sir, no sir, salutes and dress blues."

"Just because she's Navy, doesn't automatically make her just like me."

"I would argue that, but I'm still tired and I want to go to bed. Especially if I'm going to be put through my paces tomorrow."

"Bed sounds like a wonderful idea," Steve locked the front door and set the alarm before moving over to the bottom of the staircase where Danny was waiting for him. 

"We've got a lot of things to go through now we're back, but that can all wait until we've had some sleep."

Steve put his hands on Danny's shoulders as he followed his plodding footsteps up the stairs. Their bags had been abandoned in the living room and would stay there until the morning as well. 

"There's Catherine to vet, Shelburne to find, Lori and Noshimuri to track…"

"Exactly," Danny turned to face Steve when they reached the doorframe to the bedroom. He wrapped his arms around Steve's waist and pulled himself in close. "And all of it can wait. We just finished another case, caught another criminal or five and made the streets of both Honolulu and Los Angeles that little bit safer. We deserve eight hours of uninterrupted peace and quiet."

"We do," Steve nodded, then leaned down to capture Danny's lips. When he pulled back it was just enough to smile. "But I'm thinking seven and a half hours of peace and quiet… there's a half an hour first where I want to hear you make all kinds of noises."

"Half an hour, huh?" Danny laughed, his chest reverberating against Steve's, while he nosed at Steve's cheek.

"Maybe a little more than half an hour…"

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for sticking with me, folks. Like I said at the beginning, only one more story and the 'verse will be complete and we'll finally know just what the hell is going on with the boys :) I'm not saying it's a good thing either...


End file.
